Brantley Gilbert Dishes on His Dream Woman, Dream Collaborations and the Benefits of Heartbreak

Brantley Gilbert sort of chuckles when people tell him Jason Aldean stole his songs. It’s not true, and Gilbert knows he couldn’t have made them hits like his fellow Georgian did. The truth is, ‘My Kinda Party’ and ‘Dirt Road Anthem’ were too risky for a new artist. Radio wouldn’t give him a chance like they did Aldean.

Watch him perform both and you’ll see that these two cuts, like everything Gilbert writes and sings, are honest reflections of the life of one of country music’s newest outlaws. It’s not his goal to be edgy or — in the case of ‘You Don’t Know Her Like I Do,’ his newest single from ‘Halfway to Heaven’ — sensitive.

“I’m a country guy from a small town you know, and it comes across as real because it is. I don’t write anything that I hadn’t experienced or hadn’t been through. Main thing really is I write songs the way I wanna hear them and the way I think the people that come to our shows wanna hear them.”

Every fan feels like a VIP at Gilbert’s concert, something the singer takes pride in. His grassroots following is spilling into amphitheaters this summer on the Toby Keith tour. The soft-spoken 27-year-old took a moment to dish to Robinson and Taste of Country Nights radio listeners about his dream woman and dream collaborations.

Jeremy Robinson: At TasteofCountry.com, thousands of people recently voted you the most eligible bachelor in country music.

Brantley Gilbert: [laughs] I saw that. That is pretty cool, I gotta tell you. And I am eligible. I’m as single as it gets.

JR: Do you feel as sexy as everyone says that you are?

BG: Not really, I wish I could say I did [laughs].

JR: How long do you plan on being eligible?

BG: I just kind of roll with the punches right now. Not really looking, not not looking if that makes sense. I’m working real hard right now. I’m on the road and I’m touring, and I think to be as fair to me and somebody else as possible, I don’t know if it’d be the best thing in my life right now. Then again you never know, because every time one of those things ends I get a great song out of it [laughs].

JR: What kind of woman do you look for? A loud one or a quiet one?

BG: That’s an interesting thing, because in the past I’ve had relationships with real outgoing girls and I’ve relationships with girls that are real laid-back or shy. I think it just depends on the person. A lot of it would have to do right now with whether someone is interested in meeting me, or meeting the guy that is in the magazines, and on the radio stations and on TV and stuff.

JR: If you had an opportunity to do a duet with a country music artist, who would that be?

BG: I think it’d be a lot of fun to do something with Hank (Williams) Jr. I’m a huge fan and I like the way he gets after it. So I think that’d be a lot of fun.

JR: How about a rap or R&B artist?

BG: From the R&B side I’ve always been a huge Brian McKnight fan. He’s just as talented as it gets vocally, and as a musician. I think it’d be real cool to do something with him. As far as a rapper goes, I’d have to go Eminem [laughs]. I think that’d be interesting to say the least.

JR: Do me a favor and give five seconds of what you and Eminem would sound like.

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